Geological and Geophysical Studies

The South China Sea is one of the largest marginal basins in the western Pacific, and understanding how it formed requires piecing together roughly 65 million years of crustal stretching, seafloor spreading, and volcanic activity that reshaped the region during the Cenozoic era. Geologists and geophysicists working here combine seismic surveys, drilling records, and plate motion modeling to reconstruct when and how the basin rifted open, what drove that process, and how sediment has accumulated along its margins ever since. Despite decades of study, researchers still debate the precise timing and mechanism of seafloor spreading cessation, the deep crustal architecture beneath the basin's margins, and how regional forces — including subduction, collision, and mantle dynamics — interacted to produce the tectonic configuration seen today. Resolving these questions has practical significance for understanding earthquake hazards, hydrocarbon systems, and the broader tectonic history of Southeast Asia.

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127,910

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681,620

Keywords

Plate TectonicsCenozoic EvolutionRiftingCrustal StructureTectonic ModelSeafloor Spreading